Dream Meanings and Dictionary of Dream Interpretation

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What's In a Dream?

Are dreams some strange, mysterious phenomenon that spontaneously happen on the night shift of life? Or is there some deeper meaning behind this universal experience?

Throughout recorded history humankind has valued the dream. A source of guidance, inspiration, prophecy, predic tion and problem solving, dreams are a common experience to us all. They know no boundaries between young and old, rich and poor, races, religions and nationalities, In every cul ture we find some version of "sleeping on a problem" before making a decision. The Bible and other ancient texts are filled with examples of how dreams have played important roles in people's lives.

What is this wonderful dimension that is so near and yet so far? To understand the real meaning of dreams we must delve beneath the surface to the purpose of it all. Why are we here? How are we to answer the age-old question: Who am I?

Dreams Tell About You and Your Life

We have always sought to interpret the meaning and significance of our dreams, but our understanding of them has always been incomplete. If dreams are not merely random mental snapshots of past and future experiences, what are they? Can we safely read messages into them, for good or ill?

Dreams very often portray a snapshot of some part of your daily life or something on your mind, presented from the perspective of your subconscious mind. As you examine each dream, you can often find a parallel between each element in the dream and a certain element of your waking life or mind.

The moment you wake up from a dream, you already know what it means. The answers lie deep within your consciousness where the dream and its symbolism were created, right where you left them when you woke up. The essence of the dreamer’s quest is to coax those secrets out into the light of day to reveal dream meaning. Dreampedia shows you how to delve into those subconscious depths and retrieve that dream symbol treasure.

Your dream world is an invisible but extremely powerful inner resouce, one that you can learn to access freely. You can learn to command and control your dreams, thereby enriching your life immeasurably.

Each dream is a journey to the unknown with an implicit personal message. Although it is the content of the episode that determines our emotional state, dreaming in black and white indicates a possible lack of enthusiasm or nostalgia for the past. These dreams are an invitation to live with more intensity and enjoy the present.

The Dreampedia contains the tools to start down the path to discovery, in a way that person can find their own interpretation of their dreams.

Access the knowledge stored in the pages of Dreampedia. Glean from the thousands of keywords and symbolic meanings that will inspire you to delve deeper into understanding why a certain animal, object, person, place, vehicle, article of clothing, tool, home, food, flower, weather pattern, action, emotion, color, or number appeared in your subconscious dream.

"A to Z Dream Dictionary" will become your most important dream interpreting resource enabling you to solve the obscure parables of the dreams.

Providing an A-Z of dream elements and their meanings, this guide will provide you huge clarity, enabling you to decipher your dreams effectively and revolutionise your waking life.

Welcome to Dreampedia

"Learn the meaning of your dreams and understand your vision for the future"

Recognizing Dream Symbol Meaning

When you’re trying to understand the meaning of a dream symbol, what you’re really looking for is what that symbol means for you (not for someone else) in its current context in this particular dream (not in someone else’s dream or another dream you had ten years ago). I use the term “true meaning” to refer to the accurate translation of what your subconscious mind was portraying in the dream. The true meaning is usually the one that resonates with you as you’re considering various possible meanings, the one that rings true according to your intuition, and the one that your subconscious mind recognizes as the original meaning.

Intuition Is Your Dream Translator

Your intuition is your own personal translator of dream meaning. Intuition is key in understanding both the meaning of the overall dream and the meanings of its individual symbols because your intuition is the part of you that recognizes the truth.

Explore Until Your Intuition Says Yes

Rather than working in a linear or logical way (like when you’re solving a math problem), your intuition may require you to spend some time mulling over your dream symbol before an intuitive insight comes forward. So try looking at your dream symbol in different ways and considering different meanings until your intuition says, “Aha! That’s the one.” Keep exploring until you experience a flash of intuitive recognition, a sudden sense that everything within you is in alignment, or a sense of peace and completion. (You’ll learn to recognize this intuitive sense as you encounter it more often.)

Interpreting Your Dreams

If you have ever wondered why dreams often appear so difficult to make sense of, it is because the information they contain is presented in a different language; the language of symbols: of people alive or dead, known and unknown, animals both domestic and wild, landscapes and buildings familiar and strange, or any number of symbolic objects such as shapes, colors, signs, numbers, jewelry, food, clothing and so on.

These images are your own thoughts, feelings and ideas turned into a series of pictures like ordinary scenes in your daily life. For example, if you feel overwhelmed you may have a dream you are swimming but finding it hard to keep your head above water. If you feel confused you may have a dream when you are wondering about lost in a dark forest. The number of symbols and images that your mind can translate into dream pictures is practically endless.

Words just can’t convey the countless powerful feelings that symbols do. These symbols are often chosen from something that has caught our attention in waking life, triggering a memory, conflict or concern that resonates both in the present and in the past.

One tried-and-tested way to uncover the meaning of your dream images is by direct association. You simply go with the first thing that pops into your head when a trigger image from your dream is given. If you don’t immediately get an associative thought, try working through all your feelings about that image. For example, if you saw a caterpillar in a dream. Do you like caterpillars or do you find them a bit creepy? Try to discover what the image means to you right now, for the meanings of your symbols will change over time.

The more you work with your dreams, the more familiar you will become with your personal images. You’ll probably find that you dream the most about the things that you are familiar with every day: your family, your colleagues, your friends and your pet. Each time you dream about these familiar things they will have personal significance to you alone.

The great majority of dreams are not to be taken literally and you need to do a bit of detective work to get to the real message. Just because you dream that a friend is dying does not mean that he or she will die, but rather that they are going through a period of enormous change. In fact, interpreting dreams literally can be harmful. As pointed out earlier, you have your own set of unique dream images and symbols. If you love dogs, what a dog means to you and what a dog means to someone who can’t stand dogs will be very different. Always bear in mind that your dream symbols and images are unique to you.

Although the images and symbols in your dreams do need to be interpreted, their purpose isn’t to mystify you. They are simply trying to get their message across in the best way that they can. If you do find yourself getting tense, confused or frustrated when trying to interpret a dream, let it go. Dream interpretation is best approached with an open mind and in a relaxed state.

You don’t need to interpret every single dream you have. In the same way that some movies are more compelling and thoughtprovoking than others, some dreams, like those when you do fantastic things like flying into space or surfing in Hawaii, are simply to be enjoyed. You don’t always have to dig deep for meaning. It’s good to be aware that a dream might contain a message of importance, but don’t get obsessed with finding meanings for every single detail —just interpret what you can. Dreams, like life, are full of big and little stuff. Don’t sweat the ‘small stuff’.

How do We Interpret Our Dreams?

‘If the dream is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the dream.’ René Magritte

Interpreting your dreams can be a lot of fun. As we’ve said, it can also give you valuable insight. Dreams are like coded messages from your unconscious mind. When you decode them, you gain access to a wealth of intuitive wisdom.

Remember that only you can interpret your dreams. Many people have published "Dream Dictionaries" that describe what each part of the dream symbolizes. Actually, the same dream can have infinite meanings, depending on the person who dreamed it. The important thing is, what does it mean to YOU?

Interpreting dreams isn’t something you can pick up and become an expert at right away. It takes time and practice. First, keep the following things in mind: • Dreams are the reaction of the inner self to daytime activity and often show the way out of the dilemma. So relate them to current activity, because dreams may be retrospective as well as prospective.

Observe carefully recurrent dreams, as well as the serially progressive ones. These often illustrate progress or failure.
Be practical in your interpretations. Always look first for a lesson. What have you refused to face or been ignoring?
Dreams come to guide and help, not to amuse. They direct your attention to errors of omission and commission and offer encouragement for right endeavors. They also give us the opportunity to pray for others and to help them bear their burdens.
Look for past-life experiences in your dreams. These manifest themselves not only in color, but in the proper costume and setting of their period. They come to warn you against repeating the same old mistakes; to explain your relationship and reactions to certain people and places; to reduce your confusions; to enable you to better understand life.
Dreams that are unchanged through the years indicate the dreamer's resistance to change.The difficulty most people have with interpreting their own dreams is that they aren't objective enough. Their familiarity with the people and places in their dreams obscures the dreams meaning. Experts have come up with the “I AM and I NEED” formula, devised to overcome this. Here's how it works.
Once you have your dream written on paper, get two different colored pens. Using one color, underline every negative word or phrase in the dream which indicates limitation, disrespect, containment, avoidance or damage.
Using the other color, underline every positive word or phrase. You now make two lists. List the negative words and phrases under a column titled I AM. List the positive words and phrases under a column titled I NEED. You are almost ready to interpret your dream.

Determine the subject matter of the dream. The location where the dream takes place is one of the best methods for doing this. When you have determined the subject matter take each of the phrases or words in the 'I AM' column and fit them into the following sentence.

When it comes to my (subject matter) I AM (phrase or keyword)

Change the phrase or keyword slightly to force the sentence to make sense. If you cannot determine the subject matter apply the keywords to yourself in general. This exercise tells you how you feel or react to the subject matter of the dream. When you have done this read through the 'I NEED' column to learn what you must do to correct the problem. To get the meaning put each of the phrases or keywords into the sentence,

When it comes to my (subject matter) I NEED (phrase or keyword)

Let's take an example. Using the sentence 'The dead woman lay on the cold hard slab'. The negative keywords are; dead, cold and hard. Women, in dreams, can represent emotions so in this case the sentences constructed would be

When it comes to my emotions I am dead.
When it comes to my emotions I am cold.
When it comes to my emotions I am hard.

The meaning is obvious. With analyzing just one sentence from a dream we have learned a lot about the dreamer. Using this technique you now have all of the information you need to start interpreting your dreams. However it takes practice to be able to apply what you have learned. Be patient with your efforts.

Not all dream interpretations will be that cut and dried, but it is a way to remain objective when you are analyzing what your dreams mean and how best to put the messages they are conveying to good use in your life.

Keep in mind that Most dreams are * NOT * precognitive, and once one learns the subtle differences between a precognitive dream versus a regular dream, they are easily discernable and will put your mind at ease.

The first thing everyone should consider is the typical universal symbology of the dream images. For instance, death symbolizes the end of something that's ready for change, and a new beginning. Most people start out highly resistive to changes of any sort, and see any upcoming change in their life as something foreboding and scary. Death dreams are usually about change.

The symbols and what they represent is the most fascinating part of dream interpretation. There are literally hundreds of them. We don’t have the space to address ALL of them, but we will touch on some of the most recurring themes in dreams as well as the symbols of those dreams and what they mean.

Types of Dreams

Daydreams

Studies show that we all have the tendency to daydream an average of 70-120 minutes a day. Day dreaming is classified as a level of consciousness between sleep and wakefulness. It occurs during our waking hours when we let our imagination carry us away. As our minds begin to wander and our level of awareness decreases, we lose ourselves in our imagined scenario and fantasy.

Lucid Dreams

Lucid dreams occur when you realize you are dreaming. "Wait a second. This is only a dream!" Most dreamers wake themselves up once they realize that they are only dreaming. Other dreamers have cultivated the skill to remain in the lucid state of dreaming. They become an active participant in their own dreams, making decisions in their dreams and influencing the dream's outcome without awakening.

Nightmares

A nightmare is a disturbing dream that causes the dreamer to wake up feeling anxious and frightened. Nightmares may be a response to real life trauma and situations. This type of nightmare falls under a special category called Post-traumatic Stress Nightmare (PSN).

Nightmares may also occur because we have ignored or refused to accept a particular life situation. Research shows that most people who have regular nightmares have had a family history of psychiatric problems, bad drug experiences, people who have contemplated suicide, and/or rocky relationships.

Nightmares are an indication of a fear that needs to be acknowledged and confronted. It is a way for our subconscious to make up take notice. "Pay attention!" We’ll have more later in the book about nightmares and steps you can take to overcome them.

Recurring Dreams

Recurring dreams repeat themselves with little variation in story or theme. These dreams may be positive, but most often they are nightmarish in content. Dreams may recur because a conflict depicted in the dream remains unresolved or ignored. Once you have found a resolution to the problem, your recurring dreams will cease.

Healing Dreams

Healing dreams serve as messages for the dreamer in regards to their health. Many dream experts believe that dreams can help us avoid potential health problems and help us to heal when we are ill. Our bodies are able to communicate to us through our dreams to "tell" us that something is not quite right with our bodies even before any physical symptoms show up. Dreams of this nature may be telling the dreamer that he/she needs to go to the dentist or doctor

Prophetic Dreams

Prophetic dreams also referred to as precognitive or psychic dreams are dreams that seemingly foretell the future. One rational theory to explain this phenomenon is that our dreaming mind is able to piece together bits of information and observation that we normally overlook or that we do not seriously consider. In other words, our unconscious mind knows what is coming before we consciously piece together the same information

Signal Dreams

Signal dreams help you how to solve problems or make decisions in your waking life.

Epic Dreams

Epic dreams (or Great dreams) are so huge, so compelling, and so vivid that you cannot ignore them. The details of such dreams remain with you for years, as if your dreamt it last night. These dreams possess much beauty and contain many archetypal symbology. When you wake up from such a dream, you feel that you have discovered something profound or amazing about yourself or about the world. It feels like a life-changing experience

You might be wondering what exactly is going on in your head when you dream.

How to Remember Your Dreams

When beginning the steps towards interpreting your dreams, many people find it helpful to keep a notebook – a dream journal, if you will – right next to your bed with a pen or pencil. As soon as you are physically able, begin your journal.

Write down your dream as soon as you remember it. Write down everything you remember, even if it doesn’t make sense. Most often, the parts that don’t make sense or are out of place are the most valuable. Every detail, even the minutest element in your dream is important and must be considered when analyzing your dreams. Look closely at the characters, animals, objects, places, emotions, and even color and numbers that are depicted in your dreams.

Ask yourself, “What does this remind me of?” Write down the first thing that comes to your mind. This will likely be the real situation in your life that is symbolized in the dream. What did that real-life situation make you feel like? If this is the same feeling represented in your dream, you’re on the right track. Often when there is more than one part to your dream (more than one story line) that usually means there are two things your subconscious is trying to tell you.

Remember that we have between four and seven dreams per night. If you wake up from a dream, write it down. Don’t roll over and go back to sleep. If you don’t write it down, you’ll never remember it in the morning! At the very least, you can jot down the basic premise of the dream and go back in the morning to fill in the rest of the details such as feelings, etc.

Suggest to yourself every night as you fall asleep, “I will remember my dreams.” Say this over and over. Your sub-conscious will act on this subtle suggestion. Practice keen observation in your dreams through self-suggestion prior to sleep. When a problem confronts you, you might want to ask by prayer for guidance to be sent to you through your dreams.

Trust your instincts! If something seems important, it probably is. Try not to let your logical side take over.

So you’ve got your dreams down on paper. Where do you go next? The next step would be interpretation.

Book of Dream

By bringing meaning to the signs, symbols, archetypes, and elements of the Upper World, whether through night dreams or collected through the synchronistic events of the waking dream, we discover that the otherworldly intersects the worldly. Symbols of a divine origin, such as angels, halos. rainbows, suns, moons and stars, bring the qualities of the Upper World of dreams into life By engaging in meaningful play with these symbolic representations from our dreams, we may thus realize that our word can be traced to divine origins.

Upper World dreams deliver us into the certainty that spirit is all around us. assembled in the moment. And at any given moment our lives may take new. more positive direction if we choose to become lucid in our waking life and accept the grace around us. Enlightenment is the realization that heaven's dream is here on earth and we need not seek to leave our bodies to ascend Dreaming itself is a process of ascension.

Dreams in general are of transcendent value to the spiritually centered mind.

The related psychological work may even be viewed as spirit-driven. Eachç growth step we take through conscious dream work affects die collective unconscious, which includes every soul and every living thing The reverberation of our progress transforms the organism of the universe We may ourselves become like shamans and mediate the Upper World with the Middle World through recognizing dreams of a transcendent quality and bnnging the visions and information they communicate to those around us. By doing so, we bring inspiration and wisdom to our community of friends.

Spirituality and psychology have come together within the field of transpersonal psychology, which investigates transcendent states as an integral pan of the whole of an individual For the conscious dreamer, the exploration of dreams is a quest for personal truth and spiritual certainty. By honoring the dreams from the Upper World as containing sacred information, one may be guided and supported toward life's fulfillment.

When Does the Meaning of Dreams Come True?

The dreams of the first day of the month are the right dreams.

Dreams on day 2 of the month are accurate and more effective.

Dreams on day 3 also have a quick effect.

Dreams seen on days 4 and 5 show the effect after one year.

The dreams of the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th days will be effective again after a year.

The dream, seen on the 10th day of the month, is a false dream, and it is not true.

The dreams of the 11th and 12th day also take place a year later.

The 14th day dream is central; that is, neither good nor bad.

The effect of the dream of the 15th day is seen quickly.

The dream of day 16 and 17 shows itself after a while.

The dream of day 18 and 19 is very effective.

The dream of the 20th and 21st day is a false dream and is not called.

The dream of the 22nd day will quickly take effect.

The day of the 23rd and the 24th day is very bad and has no beneficial effect.

The dream of 25th and 26th day is also a liar dream and is not called.

The dream of day 27 and 28 is a useless dream.

The dream of the 29th and 30th day is true, beautiful and effective.

A Short History of Dreaming

Dreams, it seems, have fascinated the entire human race from earliest times. And until quite recently, most cultures have set great store by dreams. For example, in ancient Egypt the high priests used dreams for prophecies. There still exists a papyrus book of dreams dating back approximately 3,500 years in which dream symbols are interpreted, proving that the Egyptians took their dreams seriously.

In ancient Greece, people believed that dreams were a direct contact with the gods. One of the principal uses of dreams was for healing. Sick people went to special temples that were dedicated to dreaming as a curative method. There, a physician would help to induce a dream, which the physician would then interpret as a guide to the treatment of the ailment, and its cause as well. In modern times, the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, drew upon the writings of Artemidorus, a Greek who lived in the second century B.C.E. whom Freud much admired. Artemidorus’s books have been preserved for over two thousand years and were in constant use as references before the scientific revolution put dreams into the category of “unimportant nonsense.”

At the time of the Italian Renaissance, when rational thinking was beginning to come to the fore, dreams began to be dismissed as trivial by-products of sleep. William Shakespeare denounced dreams as “the children of an idle brain.” (On the other hand, he wrote eloquently on the nature of dreams in his play Hamlet!) John Dryden, an English philosopher, dismissed dreams as the result of indigestion or infection. The bias against dreams continued through the nineteenth century, when most people thought that dreams were caused by some external stimulus—such as a knock on the door making a person dream the house was being burglarized. Aside from such shallow interpretation, most ordinary people, doctors and philosophers, church fathers and professors, believed that dreams had no meaning and saw no need to heed them.

In his autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Dr. Jung tells of a dream in which he was a guest at a garden party. Another guest was a woman from the town of Basel, a good friend of both Jung and his sister. In the dream, Jung says, he instinctively knew the woman from Basel would die. However, when he woke up he had no idea who the woman was in real life, though the dream was exceptionally vivid. He writes, “A few weeks later, I received news that a friend of mine had a fatal accident. I knew at once that she was the person I had seen in the dream but had been unable to identify.”

It took the work of Sigmund Freud to open people’s eyes once more to the possibility of dreams being important and useful. Though Freud was obsessed with sexual meanings in dreams to the exclusion of all else, he performed a useful service with the publication of his book on dream interpretation. However, his narrow view held that dreams were mere “wish fulfillment” and a substitute for sexual satisfaction. Fortunately, one of his student colleagues, Carl Gustav Jung of Switzerland, disagreed with Freud and formulated a more comprehensive theory of dream analysis.

Jung researched the previously unstudied territory of the unconscious and came up with the idea of a collective unconscious, through which all people were connected by a common store of knowledge and experience that often revealed itself in dreams.

The Hows, Whys and Whats of Sleep and Dreams

"Sleep is the balm for hurt minds, nature’s great second course." William Shakespeare

Sleep is absolutely crucial for our physical, mental and emotional health and well-being. It is during sleep that we abandon conscious control of our physical body and the unconscious mind is allowed to roam free, giving rise to dreams.

Although we now know a lot more about dreams, their real purpose isn’t yet fully understood. It wasn’t until we approached the middle of the twentieth century, with the first electronic monitoring of the brain, that we began to get a clearer idea of the nocturnal adventures of the mind. For centuries it was thought that the purpose of sleep was to rest the body and the mind, but this reasoning was disproved when it was shown that both the body and mind are active during sleep. If sleep doesn’t rest the body or mind, then what is it for?

Sleep researchers may not yet have discovered the exact reason for sleep or dreams but they have discovered some fascinating things. For example, it seems that when we are asleep our brains are a bit like computers that are offline. This J. August Strindberg means they are not idle but are filing and updating the day’s activities. They take stock of your body and release a growth hormone to repair damaged tissues and stimulate growth, while the immune system gets to work on attacking any viral or bacterial infections that may be present. Some experts believe the brain also jettisons trivial information during sleep to prevent it becoming overburdened with unimportant information, but this explanation is perhaps too simplistic, as no memory can be totally eradicated.

The advent of space travel gave scientists the opportunity to prove that resting the body was not the main function of sleep. What they found instead was that prolonged periods of isolation decreased the need for sleep. In other words, the fewer stimuli received from people or external contacts during the day, the less sleep was required. It seems we have a sleep control center at the base of our brain linked with activity during wakefulness. When that gets overloaded we get tired, but if there have not been enough stimuli from the outside world, the sleep mechanism isn’t triggered. It seems, therefore, that boredom and lack of stimuli may account for many cases of insomnia. (Paradoxically, overstimulation also produces insomnia.)

Learn Dream Symbol Language

Your dream and its symbols speak through the language of dream symbolism. Although that language shares similarities across dreamers, each dreamer’s subconscious mind speaks in its own personal “dialect” of dream symbolism. So in Dreampedia you’ll learn about the “standard” language of dream symbols (to the extent that there is a standard one), plus you’ll learn how to decipher your own subconscious mind’s personal symbol meanings (your personal “dialect”). The following three sections introduce the primary considerations about personal dream symbol translation to keep in mind as you explore the symbol descriptions in this book.”

TOOL: Dream Dictionary

1. “Choose a symbol from your dream that you want to explore, perhaps the one that stood out the most.

2. Find that symbol in the dream dictionary and consider the possible meanings listed. Notice which (if any) resonate with you intuitively.

3. While keeping the dictionary meanings in mind, consider:

Personal meaning: What the dream symbol means to you, what it brings to mind for you, and feelings it triggers within you.

Because dream symbol meaning is subjective and personal to the dreamer, consider what the symbol means to you personally. To help yourself better understand its personal meaning, you could ask yourself:

What thoughts and feelings come up when I think of this thing?
How would I describe this thing to someone who has never seen it before?

TOOL: Caveman Explanation

The following technique can help you to deep-dive into the meanings that your subconscious mind associates with the symbol:

1. Choose a symbol from your dream, and imagine that you are explaining what it is to someone who is not familiar with it—such as a caveman, young child, or alien from another planet. The person has no idea what the thing is, how it works, what it does, what it’s known for, or anything else about it. Start from the beginning with the most basic explanation.

2. Write the meanings that you used to explain the symbol.

3. Consider which meaning resonates intuitively with you as the meaning of your dream symbol, or which meaning relates to a matter that you’ve experienced in your real life or that’s been on your mind.

How would I feel about this thing if I actually saw it in real life?
What would I say if someone asked for my impression of this thing?”

Context: How the dream symbol appears in the dream. For example, in a dream about a bird, consider what the bird was doing, how and where it was doing it, and how you felt about that. (See more in Context.)

A dream symbol’s meaning can be very specific to its context in the dream. So, think about how the symbol appeared in the dream and what that may convey about its meaning. For example, pay attention to:

Where was the object?
Was there anything unusual about its location or position?
What was it near or surrounded by (objects, people, etc.)?
What was its environment (indoor or outdoor, lighting, mood, weather, etc.)?
(If an inanimate object) What was happening to it?
(If a living being) What was it doing, how, where, and with whom?
How were the characters (including you) viewing or relating to it?
How did you feel about all of the above?”

Look beyond the obvious: A dream is often about something other than its obvious meaning. For example, physical events in the dream can represent mental or emotional matters.

A dream symbol often represents something beyond its obvious meaning. A rose could represent a real-life rose, but it’s much more likely to represent something else more symbolic (such as a feeling, characteristic, or event). So look beyond your symbol’s literal meaning by asking yourself, “What else could this symbol mean?”

4. Using what you discovered in Step 2 and Step 3, explore what the symbol represents on some level of your real life physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and so on. If a particular dictionary meaning resonated with you, explore it further by looking for more clues in the dream that point to something parallel in your real life.

5. Write your conclusions about the symbol’s meaning in your dream journal, along with any other realizations about the dream.”